If you’ve had your Mac for quite some time, you know organizing or tagging your audio files can be a daunting and time-consuming task. You can tag or audio files from iTunes, but most people wouldn’t even want to bother organizing all their files this way – especially when you have thousands of songs.
2ManyRobots has developed a nice solution to this problem – a mac app called Yate ($30, Direct Link), which seems to utilize all the basic tools that other tagging programs have, but with some great additions to make it even more powerful.
No matter if your audio files are in mp3, m4a, or FLAC format; Yate will tag it. One of the key aspects of tagging is in the ID3 specification, which Yate is really great at handling. ID3 is the information in the mp3 file and how it’s tagged and encoded, so of course, the ID3 specification is one of the more important aspects of tagging audio files.
The first time you start up Yate, you might be a bit overwhelmed by the interface, but not to worry. The application does a good job of explaining what all the tools are and the features within those tools.
One of the more common things I’ve noticed personally, while going through my audio files and those of other users is that a lot of the album artwork is missing. Yate can easily find album artwork for all your files through iTunes, Google, or Amazon.
While you’re editing files in Yate, you might get thrown off or make a mistake on something if you happen to be editing multiple files at once. Yate gives you the ability to revert back to the original contents of your audio files and erase all the changes you’ve made since selecting those specific files.
If you happen to have plist files for the items you plan on tagging, you can import those into Yate and they will be implemented within your FLAC, mp3, or m4a files. You can also output a file’s metadata, which can be saved as a text file or a Mac formatted XML file.
When using Yate, you can allow files to link to iTunes by using the link menu item or simply dragging them in. When a file is linked to iTunes you can export or import the play count, rating, and have gapless information between the two applications, thus when you update an audio file in Yate, it will also update in iTunes.
When files are linked through iTunes, they can be relinked if you happen to delete audio files with your playlist. One of the more important and useful features of Yate is “actions”. Actions is an innovative scripting feature that can update an album’s tags with one simple operation for a fast workflow.
Besides being integrated with iTunes, Yate also works well with Discogs and MusicBrainz if you prefer to use those sources of tagging and organizing your music. Yate is a great and productive way to organize your audio files.
There are other alternatives out there, but none go as far and beyond in offering as many features as Yate. Feel free to try it out for yourself for all your organizing and tagging needs.
Price: $30, Direct Link
Rating: 4/5[rating:4]
Pros:
- Easily import and export mp3, m4a, or FLAC files to and from Yate
- Use actions to update an album’s tags within a simple operation
- Previous changes can be undone in any order
Cons:
- Interface may be confusing at first
